Continuing professional development (CPD) is a process to ensure as far as possible that someone remains up to date with current developments and good practice within their profession and as a result continues to be ‘fit to practise’ within their profession and speciality.

When registrants are placed on the register they accept that they have a responsibility to maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities.

The CPD activities should:

demonstrate a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practise;

demonstrate that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practise and service delivery;

demonstrate that their CPD benefits the service user.

A random percentage of registrants will be selected each year and will be asked to submit a record of CPD activity in March for the CPD Audit Panel to review.

If selected for a full audit, supporting evidence will be requested and this will include a description of how they have met the standards for CPD.

Please familiarize yourself with the RCT CPD Policy, which has recently been updated.

CPD standards
The CPD standards used are those laid out by HCPC which are:-

maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities;

demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practise;

seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practise and service delivery;

seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user; and

upon request, present a written profile (which must be their own work and supported by evidence) explaining how they have met the standards for CPD.

Recording your CPD
We are delighted to inform registrants that IPEM has chosen the mycareerpath® online professional development system, designed and managed by the Engineering Council, to plan, evidence and record professional development. The tool, which is compatible with smart phones, tablets, PCs and Macs, is accessed by logging on to the IPEM website, navigating to MyIPEM and selecting the mycareerpath® tab from the left-hand menu. All RCT registrants have an account on the IPEM website. If you need help logging into your account, contact the Membership team.

mycareerpath® can be used to plan, evidence and record CPD and can also be used to plan, evidence and record progress towards defined competency standards such as the requirements needed to meet the professional registrations of the Engineering Council (EngTech, IEng and CEng) and the Science Council (RSciTech, RSci and CSi).

For more information on mycareerpath® please visit the IPEM webpage here.

Activity typesThe most important aspect of CPD is the outcome of CPD activity for the individual rather than the length of time engaged in it. Learning outcomes and, where relevant, their application to practice should be recorded for each piece of CPD undertaken.

Almost all activities may include an element of CPD. It is for individual registrants to recognise and record learning outcomes. It is important that CPD is across a range of activities:

To give you an idea of what is deemed a ‘good submission’, click on the following examples from previous audits: Chief Technologist – this Registrant demonstrated excellent reflection of the benefits to self and service users; Technical Services Manager – provided good examples of CPD recording and was commended by the audit team for their hard work.

Annual audits

A percentage of RCT registrants will be chosen for audit by the RCT Audit Panel each year.

mycareerpath® will be used for the RCT and IPEM annual audit in 2019. If you are selected for audit in March 2019, we will ask you to upload your CPD summary to mycareerpath®. Paper submissions will no longer be accepted via email or post. Even registrants who don’t use mycareerpath® for planning and recording CPD can upload an external CPD record into the system and submit it. It’s quicker and easier than attaching the record to an email.

You will be able to use mycareerpath® to record your CPD activity in 2019 and seamlessly upload these records if you are selected for audit in 2020.

If you are randomly selected to send in a CPD summary you can contact the RCT administrator straightaway via enquiries@therct.org.uk and request the contact details of a member of the CPD Audit Panel to advise you on what needs to be included in a CPD submission for audit.

During the audit, auditors will focus particularly on providing you with feedback on your submission, to let you know whether the information you have provided meets the audit standards and, if not, how you can change the information provided in order to meet the standards.

Audit 2018 (1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017)

In 2018 a total of 57 RCT registrants were randomly selected for audit. In addition four registrants were pre-selected following the outcome of the previous audit and two self-selected. The full report on the audit can be read here.

Audit 2017 (1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016)

In 2017 a total of 51 RCT registrants were randomly selected for audit. In addition three registrants were pre-selected following the outcome of the previous audit and three self-selected. The full report on the audit can be read here.

Audit 2016 (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015)

In 2016 we audited a number of registrants following the timetable at the bottom of this page. This timetable will be used in subsequent years.

Audit 2015 (1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014)

In 2015 we audited a number of CPD submissions for the period of 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. This was the first formal audit and it was agreed that no formal results of ‘passed’ or ‘failed’ would be used. Any concerns identified during the process were fed back to registrants.